Our final field trip of the school year was a huge hit! We went with our buddy class, Mrs. Bird's 5/6 students, to the Stuffington Bear Factory.
We started off with an interactive, animal themed Jeopardy game. Both big buddies and little buddies did very well, with many students winning accessories for the bear they would build later in the day. Then, our tour guide brought us around the factory. Since it is an actual, working factory, we were cautioned not to touch anything and "stay behind the red tape" throughout most of the tour.
We learned about the materials used for the products created at the factory and saw workers stitching by hand.
Both classes were VERY excited to spy a tub full of Google themed pillows! We asked our tour guide about them and she said they have a contract to create them for another company.
After the tour each student got to pick out a very deflated looking stuffed animal to create.
First, students stepped on a pedal attached to the stuffing machine to stuff their bear.
Next, they brought their freshly stuffed bear over to the sewing station to be hand stitched closed.
After the stitching, students headed to the vacuuming station where all the lint, fuzz and extra thread was carefully vacuumed off the bears.
If there STILL seemed to be debris on the bears after the vacuum, this bathtub blasted air and students could "wash" their animals.
Then, students brought their new snuggly friends over to the ribbon station. Everyone chose two different colored ribbons to be added to their bear.
Finally, students looked through lists of potential names for their new toy and filled out a birth certificate.
After this very thorough bear creating experience, we headed back to Fireside and had a delicious pizza, juice and picnic party in the park with our buddies!
It seemed that every student enjoyed this experience and it was a wonderful day for students from both classes. A big thank you to the parent helpers and everyone who sent in picnic foods and supplies for our delicious lunch.
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